02/13/2012

Whitney Houston, the Grammys and a Tim Tebow invitation

The death of Whitney Houston over the weekend was another social media event as tens of thousands, if not millions of people, learned about her passing on Facebook or Twitter before anywhere else, and then subsequently filled the social media spaces with retweets, comments, videos and photos.

(AP Photo)

About 2.5 million tweets and retweets occurred in the first hour of the official word of Houston's death, amounting to more than 1,000 tweets a second, according to Topsy Labs. That's not close to the record reached during the Super Bowl, but still extraordinary. The news of Houston’s death peaked at 8:23 p.m. with 61,227 tweets in that minute.

While the news of her death was officially tweeted by the Associated Press at 7:57 p.m., the first actual tweet about Houston death came almost 45 minutes earlier by Twitter user @AjaDiorNavy, who's aunt worked for Whitney Houston.

BREAKING: Publicist Kristen Foster says singer Whitney Houston has died at age 48

For the next several hours, we saw a furious amount of tweeting and re-tweeting especially involving celebrities from Mariah Carey to Tony Bennett to Nicki Minaj. Rapper Lil Wayne had the most retweets that night with 29,000.

On interesting note, for all the talk about Twitter, an informal poll of Facebook and Twitter users found most of them found out on Facebook or from an email or text, not from Twitter.

Her death also sparked an enormous amount of music purchases. Houston has the top downloaded song (I Will Always Love You) and the top downloaded album (Greatest Hits) on iTunes. All together: 3 songs in the top 10, 2 albums in the top 10 and 3 videos in the top 10. Meanwhile over at Amazon.com, her Greatest Hits album is No. 1 and seven other albums are listed in the top ten.

(AP Photo)

The Grammys capped off this surreal weekend of Whitney Houston's passing with an elegant and emotional tribute by Jennifer Hudson who performed "I Will Always Love You." Words do not do it justice.

Other trending topics produced out of the Grammy awards include Bon Iver, winner of the Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album. The only trouble with Bon Iver winning is beating out Nicki Minaj and Skrillex, fueling a bit of outrage on Twitter and captured in the Tumblr http://who-is-bon-iver.tumblr.com/. Bon Iver has also been around for about five years, so many tweeters are asking how does that qualify as new?

Adele and the Foo Fighters were other big winners, but perhaps the most memorable performance of the night came from Glen Campbell. Diagnosed last year with Alzheimer's disease, Campbell delivered a rousing performance of "Rhinestone Cowboy" that brought the audience to its feet - with the exception of two people caught sitting and texting during a standing ovation. They drew some condemnation on Twitter. Actress Kristen Chenoweth tweeted, "Tweeting from audience rather than standing and applauding a living legend like Glen Campbell is simply rude." Regardless, it was an outstanding performance from Campbell as well as Blake Shelton and the Band Perry

(AP Photo)

Campbell has won five Grammy awards over the years.

Music of a different sort is trending on YouTube. A North Korean accordion band performing A-ha's song 'Take on Me' were a big hit at the Barents Spektakel music and cultural festival in Norway.

From ESPN, Sheffield Wednesday soccer mascots Barney and Ozzy picked a fight with ESPN’s FA Cup mascot Buddy. The grumpy duo may have been acting out of frustration as they watched Wednesday lose 3-0 to Blackpool.

The response of the Boston Police Department to a hacking of its website by Anonymous has gone viral.

Legendary Denver quarterback Tim Tebow is the latest celebrity receiving an invitation to a military ball. Jamie Walden is asking Tebow to be her date for the 2012 Military Ball in Shreveport, Louisiana, and she has some support from friends. No word yet if Tebow will accept the invitation.

Finally, the Michigan Humane Society recently received a call about a one-month-old puppy in need of rescuing after it got trapped in an underground pipe. They brought in an excavator to get the puppy out of the pipe.

Comments

Glen Campbell's career story in the music and television industries is sheer amazement and unprecedented. Born in a small town in Arkansas, as Glen got older he discovered that he was blessed with a talent similar to that of Jimmy Page, Mark Knopfler ,Steven Sills or any of our admirable guitarists. When he arrived in Hollywood, Glen was no aspiring resume passer. He was hired to fill in as a Beachboy and began a lucrative career as a session player, sitting in on artists that needed the back up. Eventually he hosted the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour with the Smothers brothers and all the while collaborated with one of the most loved song writers Jimmy Webb churning out hit after hit such as Gentle On My Mind and By the Time I get To Phoenix. I was always a huge fan and have every wish and hope that Glen will recover.

The only person I think should play Whitney Houston Bio is PAULA PATTON!!! Please no Jennifer Hudson..she don't fit her character same for Rihanna and Jordan Sparks.
Jennifer Hudson: do not look like Whitney at all
Rihanna: Too short
Jordan Sparks: Wide facial features
Bobby Brown should be Martin Lawrence because he's good acting those high strung parts.